Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Game Summary

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is an entirely new take at the best Castlevania game to never be released in the US, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. The Dracula X Chronicles brings the beloved action/adventure franchise to the PSP system for the first time, complete with 3D graphics, enhanced gameplay and new music. Completing the Dracula X storyline, this game also includes an unlockable version of Symphony of the Night and players will also be able to unlock the original Rondo of Blood from the NEC PC Engine.

In what could only be considered an odd PR move, the release date for Rocket Knight, Konami's 16-bit revival, was recently announced via Facebook. The announcement was preceded by an excited, emoticon laced preamble the day before. "hey guys! we have a release date, but we're trying to clear the announcement thru the powers that be. :( i'll see if i can sneak you guys the info, wish me luck! ;-)".
Read the coherent version after the break. Read More

A few days ago, we brought fans of Castlevania some excellent news in that the long-elusive series installment, the Turbografx-CD version of Rondo of Blood, had been rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for the Wii's Virtual Console. But despite the good news, there were still concerns about localization of the title.
Siliconera managed to catch up with someone from Hudson, who revealed the unfortunate truth: while we will be getting Rondo of Blood "shortly," the game will unfortunately not be in English. Read More

The ESRB has rated Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood for the Wii Virtual Console, likely confirming the first stateside release of the original Turbografx-CD version of the game.
The game had already been rated on Wii by the OFLC in December, confirming a European release some time this year. This now applies to North America, although no specific release date has been confirmed. Rondo of Blood has been available on Virtual Console in Japan since 2008. Read More

While I personally have both a PlayStation Portable and a Nintendo DS, I spend a lot more time playing the latter than I do the former. Simply put, there are more games I want to play on the DS, and most of what I want to play on the PSP is related to what is on the DS, but isn't actually available there (Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, etc.).
But, that's just games, and who cares about those, right? That seems to more or less be the gist of a new article from Destructoid which checks out all of the reasons they feel the portable PlayStation is superior to the double-screened Nintendo, and you can check it all out here.
Of course, while these are all very good and compelling reasons, I'm still grabbing Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, and if I can, Scribblenauts.
Incidentally, the main reason I'm posting this here is that there is some sort of... familiar feeling to the article, somehow, and I don't quite know what it is. And so I was hoping that maybe my fellow Kombo-ites would know. Read More

Mega Man fans are a hopeful lot. We spent the past decade and some change hoping for a new title in the Classic series, and in that regard, we got lucky with Mega Man 9 taking the video game world by storm last year. However, that seems to be the rare instance.
As I have made no secret of, a new title in the Mega Man Legends series is also highly desired. So much so, in fact, that a number of fans (myself included) are quite willing to settle for re-releases of the original titles, be it by way of Virtual Console and PlayStation Network, or even on a Collection disc, the likes of which both the original Mega Man and X have seen. All so we can share the love with people who have not yet experienced it, as well as show our support for a new entry with our dollars. Sadly, nothing of the sort lay on the horizon.
Fortunately, that's not the case for the two PlayStation Portable titles, Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X. Read More

When the time came for Kojima Productions to make its announcements at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, there was a sense of bewilderment as one of the titles announced was not simply Lords of Darkness, but Castlevania: Lords of Darkness. This left some to wonder of the fate of longtime series producer Koji Igarashi, who was not in attendance at the event.
Today, however, Konami revealed to Kotaku what was going on. "He is still at Konami, and he is still working on projects," company spokesman Jay Boor told them from his place at the San Diego Comic Con.
When pressed about Igarashi's possible involvement with the MercurySteam-developed Lords of Shadow title, Boor declined to comment, leaving it up in the air as to whether or not this would really be the first Castlevania in many a year to come without the developer's hand in it.
Also conspicuous is the lack of an announced DS Castlevania, one of which has been released in 2005, 2006, and 2008 (2007 instead saw the release of The Dracula X Chronicles on PSP). Konami hopes to announce Igarashi's next project at the Tokyo Game Show, but declined to comment on a new DS installment in the series. Read More

With Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia now hitting store shelves and Castlevania Judgement soon on the way, Kikizo recently got the chance to speak with the Master of the Whip himself, series Producer Koji Igarashi. He reiterated the usual points about Judgement, in how he wanted an experience which players could play "in short bursts," yet "get the full game experience," as well as the lack of 1:1 whip action ("that... would be cruel and unusual punishment"). Beyond that, he describes his further motivations for making Judgement into the type of game it is:Two main reasons why this type of game felt like a good fit for Castlevania, though... number one, I wanted to put a time restriction on it, so people wouldn't be playing for hours at a time. Number two is that this is the 22nd anniversary of the series, and I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to bring characters from all of the past games together for the first time. Maybe I should have actually done this for the 20th anniversary, but... [laughs]More after the cut. Read More

Until we get further clarification on this, I'm keeping it marked as a rumor for now, at least where the title is concerned.
As regards the image above, which came from a +D article:Why, that appears to be Alucard, star of the ubiquitous Symphony of the Night and apple of ten billion goth girls' eyes. A discerning fellow might also intuit that Alucard is holding a gigantic glowing sword in front of a certain titular castle and a giant moon. Now, I don't read Japanese, and no intrepid fan has translated the +D article this picture originates from, but folks over at the Castlevania Dungeon, run by the inestimable Kurt Kalata, are saying that this is from an Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 title about, "the bloodline that has been surrounded by darkness and curse, betrayed his own kind and destroyed his own father, the cursed destiny."
...
But here's a huge dose of rumor and speculation for you anyway: this appears to be a full on sequel to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Can you hear that? That's the sound of one million geek hearts exploding simultaneously.
Thanks to both NeoGAF user Guymelef and The Castlevania Dungeon for alerting us to the madness. -- 61 Frames Per SecondIf true, the question then would be "what constitutes a SOTN sequel?" Simply having Alucard? Or would this mean it's in 2D, as many longtime Castlevania fans have hoped, after being banished to the realm of handhelds.
I certainly hope we get a good 2D console "Metroidvania," as the vernacular dubs it. Though I'll admit, it wasn't until I played Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP (ironically) that I got to fully experience it; it was Portrait of Ruin which drew me back into Castlevania, in spite of being a longstanding fan. Read More